O.C. Task Force Will Study Total Government Overhaul : Supervisors: Steiner proposal calls for dramatic downsizing of county bureaucracy, more privatizing.

Setting the stage for what could be a massive government overhaul, the Board of Supervisors on Wednesday established a task force to suggest ways to restructure the way Orange County does business.

In the wake of the county’s investment debacle, Supervisor Roger R. Stanton called on his colleagues to form a committee that would not only make sweeping changes in county government but also would establish safeguards to prevent future investment troubles.

He talked of downsizing and letting private businesses handle some county services.

“I do not believe that any rational leader should expect the taxpayers of Orange County to agree to refinance a clone of the former county bureaucracy,” said Stanton. “I believe the restructuring of Orange County is inevitable.”

The proposal, which was unanimously approved by the board, was praised from several other politicians and community leaders.

“The streamlining of government could be the silver lining in this cloud,” said Peer Swan, chairman of the Irvine Ranch Water District.

Harold Ezell, the former federal immigration commissioner from Newport Beach, said the board should go further than just restructuring county government.

“There has to be a disbanding of county government,” said Ezell, who helped author Proposition 187 on the November state ballot, which denies health and education services to illegal immigrants. “This is the time to do it. . . . If we look at what we would save by eliminating county government we could pay off the debt in a couple years.”

More power should be returned to cities, who could easily administer current county tasks, Ezell said.

“I think the Board of Supervisors has become a kingdom that isn’t necessary anymore,” he said. “They’ve outlived their usefulness, like the monarchy in England.”

Although it is clear that the board would not go so far as to eliminate itself, supervisors may be forced to make drastic changes in county government operations because of their financial straits.

Currently, county government is one of the largest employers in the county with more than 18,000 workers. The county’s sphere of influence has diminished over the years as cities have incorporated, but the size of its bureaucracy has grown.

The county provides such diverse services as police and fire protection, bus service, libraries, parks, medical care for the poor and trash hauling.

In recent days, supervisors have asked county department heads to cut or suspend all but essential services and spending.

“This opportunity to streamline and restructure cannot be lost,” Stanton said. “The ramifications of success in this endeavor extend beyond the present crisis.”

The task force will be headed by Stanton and Supervisor William G. Steiner and will include members of the business community and citizen watchdog groups.

Stanton, a former college professor, said he is working on a “paper” to be released in the next few days that will address how he believes county government should be reshaped. He said he would expect that a new county government would be drastically streamlined with many current county operations being privatized.

State Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), who joins the board in January, said she strongly supported the formation of the task force.

“Restructuring, reinventing, whatever you want to call it, it’s a question of making the system work because it’s badly out of whack right now,” she said.

Bergeson said any effort to reinvent county government would have to be accompanied by Orange County being granted with charter status, which provides a government with more flexibility on a wide range of issues. Such an action would have to be approved by the voters.

Like Stanton, Bergeson stressed that the county needs to look more closely at privatizing many of its services to save money.

“Where the private sector can respond in a more competitive way, that should be an option for the county,” said Bergeson, who has unsuccessfully pushed legislation in recent years that would have allowed Orange County to privatize such services as janitorial work.

“I think this is a wake-up call,” Bergeson said. “This is probably the best opportunity Orange County will ever have to reinvent its style of government, which hasn’t changed because of the entrenched bureaucracy.”